Lee said, “My immediate reaction, it was just one of anger and sadness. First of all, today, Andrea, is the eighth anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. We’re leading into the anniversary of Dr. King’s birthday to honor his life and his legacy, and here we have a president who has once again said racist and despicable words about African-Americans, people of color and countries that really have helped build — their descendants, and current residents have helped build America to its greatness. What he has said, of course, is that you’re only welcomed in America if you’re white. Otherwise, you’re not welcome in this country.”

She continued, “I fully believe that what Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond, said was very correct. It was exactly what needed to be said when he noted that when President Trump says “make America great again,” he really means ‘make America white again.’ That’s exactly what we see.”

She added, “This once again is a terrible, sad, hateful example of what this president is doing not only in terms of his attitudes and ideology, but what he is doing in terms of his policy. And how this is reflected in his legislative priorities and the policies that are emanating from theWhite House. Speaker Ryan and the Republicans need to step up and not only condemn this president for what he said, but they need to do something, and they need to do something in terms of making sure that they put him in check. Because we cannot allow a president in the United States to really continue with this ideology as reflected in his policies by making America white again because that is exactly what he is trying to do.”